All Things Fun! Podcast: Back at the Franklin

The newest All Things Fun! Podcast is now online - Season 2: Episode #5 Back at the Franklin!

Join Ed Evans, Wes Hitchins and Jess Williams as they return to The Franklin Institute in downtown Philadelphia PA for the launch of the Body World 2 and The Brain Exhibition in this game-centric episode. Wes previews Z-Man's Dungeon Lords and reviews AEG's Adventurers. Ed reviews Mayfair Games' Station Master and tries to convince Wes to donate his body to science. We also hear an interview with Mr. Anatomy and we meet All Things Fun!'s youngest fan!

You can send feedback to feedback@allthingsfun.net or online at www.allthingsfun.net/bbs. You can also call our new feedback voicemail number 1(856)448-GAME(4263).

To see Jess's Show Notes visit: www.allthingsfun.net/jess_notes.

Show Map:
00:00: Intro
00:22: Opening
03:57: Body Worlds 2 & The Brain
08:28: People in the crowd (Paul from Camden)
09:18: Jess talks to Mr. Anatomy
10:03: Wes previews Dungeon Lords & reviews Adventurers
18:25: Ed talks Wes into donating his body to science
24:08: Ed reviews Station Master
29:36: People in the crowd (Mike from Clinton)
30:28: End Credits
32:07: End

Check it out here or direct download: ATFPodcast_S2_Ep05_01_18_10.mp3

Enjoy!

And don't forget to visit All Things Fun! - South Jersey's premiere toy, game and comics store here.

2010 Oscar Nominations

The Academy Award nominations for this year were announced this morning. You can view them here.

A couple weeks back, I posted some of my guesses about what would be nominated at my Twitter. I was right on with a few and dead wrong with a few - and of course there are some outright exclusions and some WTFs that made it.

I'll post my thoughts later. For the moment, though, enjoy the nominations...

W.

W. ~ There’s no way around this one, so I’m warning y’all up front – this is going to be messy, and worse than that, this is going to get political. And in reviewing W., I think I need to make my political standings clear.

I voted for George W. Bush once, and quickly soured on that decision in light of his behavior in both a post-9/11, and a pre-9/11 world. I didn’t make the same mistake twice. The following election brought me to independent candidates and in the most recent I was a major Barack Obama supporter, even when my faith in him wavered during the election, I still proudly gave him the vote. I believed in the man, and even though we remain in a war (or wars) we shouldn’t be in, I still do. Nobody’s perfect.

The point of bringing up President Obama is that I wonder if director Oliver Stone would ever make a similar movie about Obama in the same way he made W. I wonder this because W. is character assassination, pure and simple. I also can’t help but wonder why make such a film about a man that quite clearly is and was pretty much hated anyway. And it’s one thing to make a film, admittedly based on fact, that makes a man look bad, but another thing entirely to have nothing that makes him look good in the whole film. I don’t like the junior Bush myself, but I’m sure he has a soul and treats animals well. Heck, even Hitler was fond of dogs and liked to paint. I’m not asking for anyone to make a bad man look like a saint, but at least half the voting citizens of this country voted for him twice – he must have some good attributes.

Oliver Stone is also someone I dislike, but for different reasons. He makes movies based on real events, but frequently, in films like JFK, The Doors and Nixon (just three examples out of many) he depicts scenes that really no one could know about. Scenes of people alone doing things they would never admit to. How does anyone know about this?

All that said, technically it’s a well made film. Well shot, well written and Josh Brolin is impressive. Brolin should have asked Stone for some sympathetic scenes however, so he might have gotten an Oscar nod. But as I said, no sympathy here. And I sure would like to see footage of the real press conference that last scene is based on, ‘cause I must have been asleep that newsday. I can’t wait for Stone’s Obama and Hitler bio-pics, so I can compare and contrast.

Not the Zsazsa You Think...

Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh ~ Take colorful Filipino comic book superheroics, Bollywood and Broadway musical sensibilities and a gender-bending hero/heroine - and mix well, and you’ll get this movie version of Carlo Vergara’s Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

The secret origin of Zsazsa is one unique in all of comics – meek crossdressing beautician Ada eats a space rock, a big space rock, and becomes the superpowered and female Zsazsa Zaturnnah. It’s even more disturbing than you think, especially the eating the space rock part.

My favorite part is where Zsazsa gets served by the Queen of the dayglo Amazonistas and they have a dance off, I mean, fight, and keep fighting, and dancing, and singing. And apparently the Amazonistas (think Spice Girls from hell) come from the planet where 300 was filmed. Their battle scenes are like the Power Rangers on acid at Wigstock, and that’s a good thing.

There are also zombies and a giant frog, as if the Amazonistas weren’t enough. It’s crazy good fabulous fun, and you won’t believe your eyes, or ears.

J.D. Salinger 1919-2010

This is another hard one for me. This man’s writing was brilliant, the work of a genius, whose words exist on many levels for many people. Author J.D. Salinger has passed away of natural causes yesterday in New Hampshire.

Salinger’s best known work is the legendary “The Catcher in the Rye” with its controversial protagonist Holden Caulfield. This book, despite the screams of parents and right wing nutjobs, has become mandatory reading in high schools and colleges.

“The Catcher in the Rye” is a work I have always thought should be read several times at different ages. You get a different perspective on the characters and the story when you read it at fourteen than you do at twenty-four or at even forty-four. It’s the difference between a cool kid and a sociopath. Unfortunately, over the years, several unbalanced folks have not seen the difference, and used the book as a guide for their madness. John Lennon’s assassin stands out as only one dark example.

“Catcher” is not Salinger’s only work, it should be noted. I highly recommend especially “Nine Stories” and “Franny and Zooey.” Unfortunately Salinger has not published since 1961. And therein lies the other reason he has become famous – his self-imposed exile from public life. He has rarely been heard from except regarding legal matters to protect his work.

We have lost one of the true greats. Fortunately the work of J.D. Salinger lives on.